cJa.^- 



Williams, Sejnuel G, 
1889. 



C.RWALCOTT. 



Lfl 25 
.W5 
Copy 1 



THE 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



ITS VALUE TO TEACHERS 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL 
ASSOCIATION, AT NASHVILLE, JULY i8th, 1889 



BY 



PROF. SAMUEL G, \yiLI.IAMS 
0/ Cornell University 




Copy 



1 



^^^ 



• 4" 

AT The History of Education. 

*^ ITS VALUE TO TEACHERS. 

/^UR present standpoint of educational attainment is obviously 
^-^ the result of past efforts. Our entire stock of effective ap- 
pliances, of approved methods, of tested and confirmed principles, 
and of valued schemes of organization, has its roots in the past, 
and often a very remote past ; as have also the various branches 
of learning which are used as means of intellectual training. So, 
too, the means which are suited for the higher and more important 
work of developing character, have been discussed and tested by 
our predecessors ; their fitness, and the conditions under which 
the}' are useful, have been in some degree ascertained ; and the 
limits of their efficiency have been measurably determined. 

Viewed, therefore, in the most general way, we should reason- 
al>ly expect that an acquaintance with the History of Education 
would be of great value to all teachers who aim to be something 
better than mere slaves of routine, — and, happily, the number of 
such teachers is rapidly increasing. Not only is it true that "the 
better one knows the rules and principles of his art, the more bold- 
ly he practices them ;" but also it is certain that the more thor- 
oughly one understands as teacher the history of the methods he 
uses, of the principles that he applies, and of the branches that he 
teaches, the bolder, more intelligent, more ingeniously varied, and 
more efficient will be likely to be all his operations, and the greater 
the probability of beneficial improvement ; whilst the possibilit}' 
that he may be tempted, by a false notion of originality, to the 
repetition of discredited experiments will be reduced to a minimum. 

I. What is doubtless the most valuable and essential service 
that may be rendered to teachers by familiarit}- with the History 
of Education, is one that is but too likely to be overlooked, viz : 
the enhancement of the abilit}' to take a broad and unprejudiced 
view of pedagogical questions. The acknowledged tendency of 
the teacher's vocation is to produce a certain limitation of ideas to 
a narrow circle, and to foster prejudices in favor of certain famil- 
iar lines of work, or certain usual modes of doing work. This 



4 The History of Education. 

tendency is incident to the very nature of his calling, which brings 
him into intimate contact chiefly with immature minds, and usu- 
ally limits his professional activity to the elements of a few 
branches, which, when they become familiar, seem to the nar- 
rowed vision to fill the entire round of desirable knowledge. From 
this limitation of view, since narrowness is proverbially zealous, 
spring an abundance of pedagogical treatises, discussions, and po- 
lemics, which too commonly are pretentious rather than valuable, 
and which, by their distortion and exaggeration of some phase of 
truth, produce all the effects of error. Such works have given 
occasion to a writer, in a recent issue of an influential journal of 
education, to sa3^ with some display of bitterness, in treating of 
" Low Tone in Teachers," "There is another incubus upon us 
that may be noted in a word, and that is pedagogical literature. 
The educational psychologists offer us the most dreadful imposi- 
tions upon simple-minded teachers who are not learned in philoso- 
phy. ... Of books on general pedagogy, almost all should be es- 
chewed : the attempt to read them is purely injurious." It is to 
be hoped that this statement is a pedagogical exaggeration, — an 
illustration of a tendency to exaggerate so strong as to display 
itself even in a rebuke of the results of distorted and one-sided 
views. 

The most effectual corrective to the tendency in question is to be 
found in such an enlargement of the horizon of thought and of the 
limitations of individual experience, as is likely to be gained by a 
thoughtful study of the History of Education. There we may see 
depicted gropings after improvement and conflicts of opinion, 
which were, possibly, no more futile or causeless than those in 
which we are actors. In its pages we may, with unprejudiced 
vision, see mirrored the images of struggles wholly analogous to 
our own " conflict of studies " and of ideas, — the struggle of scho- 
lasticism against the noble monuments of classic literature ; the 
struggle of Latinists against the growing literary use of vernacular 
tongues; the struggle against the cultivation of mathematical sci- 
ence in old European universities ; the stolid resistance of the bar- 
baric methods of mere memory cramming, which, in the witty 
words of Montaigne, made of boys "mere asses loaded with books, 
to whom, with blows of a whip, was given a pocket-full of science, 
not to 2ise but to keep,'' to all efforts to utilize the youthful instinct 
for a knowledge of nature, and so to gain access to the memory 
through the understanding ; in brief, the perennial warfare which 



Its Value to Teachers. 5 

in every age is waged b}' a narrow conservatism entrenched in pre- 
scriptive use, against even the most enlightened efforts for a closer 
conformity to nature in methods, or for a truer conformity to the 
present state of culture in the choice of the subject-matter of studies. 
If such a study should serve as a salutary warning against our re- 
luctance to reconsider and, if need be, to revise our means and 
methods of instruction, and against our natural disposition to think 
that what we are accustomed to is part of the necessary scheme of 
things ; if it should dispose us to take a broad and unprejudiced, 
yet not hast}', view of all educational questions, a view in which 
self counts for little and the advancement of our profession for 
much ; if it should incline us to lay a less exclusive emphasis on 
attainment and more on the development of character ; and if, fur- 
thermore, as in all other vocations which have to deal with vital 
human interests, it should confer that justness of judgment, that 
unerring sagacitj^, that openness of mind to consider all questions 
impartiall}' on their merits, and that far-seeing comprehensiveness 
of intelligence which views subjects in all their bearings, thus mak- 
ing teachers truly statesmen in all that concerns their calling ; who 
will say that the History of Education would not do to our profes- 
sion a service of the greatest possible moment ? 

2. The stud}' of educational history can hardly fail to eidiance 
in every true teacher, his sense of the dignity and importance of 
his calling, in its relations, not merely to the welfare of individuals, 
but to the elevation and true greatness of societies and states. It 
will reveal to him how closely every advance in civilization has 
been correlated with a corresponding advance in the education of 
youth, — a correlation so intimate that it would be difficult to de- 
termine which is effect and which cause. This relation is shown, 
not merely in the effects of education, recently somewhat studied, 
in increasing the efficiency of labor, and in dimini.shing those twin 
blots on civilization, pauperism and crime ; but, on a broader 
.scale, in the entire history of civilization and of education. In 
this it becomes manifest that the depth and validity of any civili- 
zation can be truly estimated only by the thoroughness with which 
all .social ameliorations and humanitarian developments reach and 
permeate the masses of the comnumity through an efficient educa- 
tion. For a civilization may easily be very brilliant, and yet ex- 
ceedingly superficial. It may exhibit a high degree of perfection 
of .social arrangements, the benefits of which may reach but a very 
limited cla.ss ; it may be adorned by many individual examples of 



6 The History of Education. 

refinement and elevation of sentiment, and of nobleness of char- 
acter ; it may be made illustrious by a brilliant and enduring lit- 
erature ; and yet beneath this shining exterior may seethe a vast 
mass of popular ignorance, superstition, and semi-barbarism. 
Such civilizations, whose benefits are limited to a small educated 
class, either perish from their own limitations, or are forced by in- 
testine convulsions to educate and elevate the masses as a condi- 
tion of their own continuance. 

The vital influence of education on national welfare, which the 
Germans have embodied in the well-known maxim that whatever 
you would make deeply infliiential in a nation's life, you must 
first embody in the education of a nation's youth, is no discovery 
of modern times. Plato and Aristotle, the two greatest philoso- 
phers of antiquity, show their thorough comprehension of it by 
incorporating their weighty views on education in treatises of po- 
litical philosophy, of which they clearly saw that it is an essential 
part. Plato was .so deeply impressed with its importance, that in 
two remarkable passages of "The Laws," he proposes that the 
education of all citizens of both .sexes .should be made compulsory ; 
and, despairing of the stability of states on any other terms, he 
would even fix its subject-matter by unalterable laws. 

This lofty view of education as the twin si.ster of civilization, 
and as the most vital factor in the elevation and transformation of 
societies and states, needs to be deeply impressed on the conscious- 
ness of every teacher, that he may ri.se to the full dignity of his 
calling ; and in no way can it be so effectually inculcated as b}^ a 
thoughtful study of the History of Education : for here as else- 
where, the well-known maxim of Seneca holds good, " Longum 
iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax perexenipla." Already we 
are beginning to utilize this powerful reformatory influence, in in- 
.struction on the nature and effects of stimulants, in impressing on 
young minds the importance of the preservation of forests by the 
exercises of Arbor Day, and in inculcating respect for labor by 
some training in constructive work. We shall do our duty in 
these and other respects more efficiently, the more deepl}' we are 
penetrated with a .sen.se of the far-reaching effects of all impres- 
sions made on youthful minds. 

3. Akin to what has just been considered, is the value of the 
historic lesson, that education like civilization has been a gradual 
evolution, who.se progress has been marked by a growing adapta- 
tion of man, at first to his physical, and then to his social and 



Its Value to Teachers. 7 

spiritual environment. The course of this evolution may indicate to 
the educator along what lines future efforts for improvement should 
be made, and how the}' may be made successful. It should teach 
him not to undervalue pliysical development and a familiarity 
with nature's laws, through obedience to which alone, man has been 
enabled to make nature subservient to his will. It will assure him 
that when he habituates children and youth to social requirements, 
and to obedience to justly exerted authority, he is takingnomean 
step towards their complete spiritual development and emancipa- 
tion. So too, the slowness of progress, in which the Divine 
will has determined that every advance step shall be fixed by he- 
redity, and made permanent only by the slow lapse of time, may 
.serve to restrain his impatience when his duty calls him to labor, 
as it often must, amidst ignorant and relatively undeveloped sur- 
roundings ; and may give him the needful courage to work in 
God's own waj^ patiently elevating one generation, if but a little, 
that the succeeding generation may start from a somewhat higher 
level. 

4. Again, if the past has taught any lesson with more than usual 
clearness, it is this, that the hopes of our race for a brighter and 
happier future depend solely on the increasing culture of the largest 
possible number of its members ; and that this culture must receive 
its impulse from the higher centers of learning. Nay, more ; it 
teaches that every step of educational progress has resulted, not 
from the efforts of ambitious ignorance to struggle upward, but 
from a helpful influence reaching downward from what is highest 
in education, and aiding to lift towards itself masses otherwise in- 
ert and unprogressive ; and that hence the chief hope of mankind 
for intellectual and spiritual elevation must be found in the spread 
aiid activity of high-class schools. And this is precisely what 
might be expected ; for, without such stimulus, the average un- 
lettered man is but dimly con.scious of his limitations and of his 
higher needs, if indeed he has any consciousness of them at all. 
Feeling keenly only the wants, and knowing only the enjoyments, 
which appeal to the lower side of his nature, unless some impulse 
comes to him from above, rousing him to an ennobling discontent, 
and pointing him to gratifications for the higher nature that is dor- 
mant within him, what hope can be found for his elevation ? Give 
now to this man even no more than the ability to read fluently, 
and at once the horizon of his life is enormously enlarged and his 
pleasures elevated, by bringing him into a possible communion 



8 The History of Eihication. 

with the brightest spirits of all times ; and every added enlarge- 
ment of his mental and spiritual culture, b}' increasing his capa- 
bility of deriving a larger pleasure from the best stores of the past 
and present, and by enhancing his sense of personal dignity, di- 
minishes measurably the temptation to satisfy himself with low 
and sensual enjoyments. But this elevating stimulus comes always 
from the highest culture of the times. Thus Solon and Socrates, 
Plato and Aristotle in Greece, the emigrant Greeks in Rome, the 
Saracens in their great Spanish schools, the scholars whom the 
early universities of Italy, France and England sent widely over 
Europe ; Luther and Melanchthon, Sturm and Comenius in Ger- 
many, Erasmus and Ramiis, and Montaigne and the .self sacrific- 
ing I,aSalle in France and Holland, and Bacon, Milton and Locke 
in England, - not to mention le.ss prominent worthies, nor those of 
more recent days, — all men endowed with the best learning which 
their times afforded, have .scattered the beneficent .seeds from which 
has sprung the widely difFu.sed culture that we enjoy, a culture 
whose fruits reach, or may reach, the humblest homes. 

From this, the teacher, versed in educational histor}', ma)' gain 
a higher motive, not only for cherishing and defending secondary 
schools when he hears their interests a.ssailed on the low g-rounds 
of supposed present utilitj' ; but for reverencing all higher seats of 
learning, and hailing with jc}' their advancement, being assured 
that as they rise the}^ will not only elevate with them the entire 
system of schools below, but will illumine a wider horizon with a 
brighter radiance. 

5. To these highly valuable yet, possibly, .somewhat remote 
considerations which the study of educational history will be likely 
to press upon the attention of teachers, may be added .some of a 
more immediate character, in the way partly of suggestion, partly 
of caution. A.ssuredly the history of Greek education should di- 
rect our attention forcibly to the need of a greater care in the cul- 
tivation of our vernacular, and in familiarizing our youth with the 
treasures of its literature. We .shall learn that the Athenian school- 
master bestowed admirable care on securing purity of pronuncia- 
tion, of accent, and of rhythm in his pupils, and promoting an ex- 
act and harmonious u.se of their native tongue ; that the poems of 
Homer were their inspired reading book, to which were added the 
works of the cyclic and lyric poets, and other gems of their national 
literature ; and that, from the lack of books, much of this litera- 
ture was firmly imprinted on the memory of youth, there to ger- 



Its Vabie to Teachers. 9 

minate and bear its fruit in an unsurpassed national taste. A large 
part of the scholastic training of boys was thus in the literature of 
their language ; and Plato deemed the careful selection of this lit- 
erature of so great moment, from the permanence of the impres- 
sions made on young minds, that he devotes a considerable part of 
the Second and Third Books of the "Republic" to an exposition 
of the principles that should govern the selection of reading for the 
young. He plainly indicates, both here and in "The lyaws," that 
the multitudinous writers whose books infest all the highways and 
bypaths of modern literature, warping the ideas and lowering the 
taste of j^outh, would have had but a sorry reception in his ideal 
state, in which the teacher was exi)ected so to preoccupy the minds 
of the young with what was best in both poetry and prose that 
there would be no encouragement for the writing of trash. 

The practice of the Athenians, and its well-known results, 
should suggest to us the expediency of early directing the minds 
of children to such of our best authors as are most nearly level 
to their comprehension, trusting that if at first thej' do not clearly 
understand, they may at least y^^/ their excellence, as was said by 
the erratic Rosseau of the literature bj' which his young fancy 
was nourished. Indeed, it should be said that more mature minds 
even, meet many things in the best books which thej' y^^/ rather 
than full}^ understand, and which must aw^ait the chance of some 
favoring experience for their complete elucidation. Should the 
Athenian example need a more recent enforcement, it may be 
found in the well-known prevalence among educated Frenchmen 
of a keen sense for literary form, due largely no doubt, to the con- 
tinuing influence in the best French schools of Rollin's " Traite 
des Etudes," in which the careful teaching of the mother tongue 
with exposition of its best literature, is strongly emphasized and 
clearly illustrated. 

I, of course, know full well that a movement in the right direc- 
tion has already been initiated amongst us ; and that, as is usual, 
it has received its most vigorous impulse from our higher institu- 
tions of learning. How much of depth or extent this movement 
has, many of you have good means of knowing ; but it is certain 
that it is accompanied hy the discouraging intimation that our 
teachers are unable to present fitl}- the Ijest specimens of our liter- 
ature, without the aid of editions stuffed to twice or thrice their 
original bulk, with explanator}' notes, mostly on points that should 
need no explanation. A distinguished professor of English litera- 



TO The History of Education. 

ture very recently said to me that such editions are admirably 
fitted to repress all literary taste. Let us hope that our teachers 
ma}^ soon vindicate their ability to present the literature of their 
mother tongue without such adv^entitious aids. Probabl}^ few 
things that may be taught in our schools are of such transcendent 
importance as the inculcation of a taste for good reading ; and 
none seems to be more generally neglected. The example of the 
ancient Greeks may teach us a most valuable lesson in this regard. 

6. This same Athenian example may also serve, both to dimin- 
ish somewhat our confidence in the efficacy of mere grammar 
study in promoting practical skill in the use of our language, and 
to lessen the emphasis with which we are wont to demand the 
study of other languages, not only for their utilitj^ and as a means 
of intellectual culture, but also as well-nigh indispensable for the 
mastery of our vernacular, and for a.ssuring correctness of taste. 
For, it was long after Greek literature had passed the meridian of 
its splendor, before the first Greek grammar,* or indeed any form- 
al grammar, made its appearance. The grammar of the Greek 
school-boy was literary study, without any formal separation of 
words into classes or analysis of their relations, things which even 
the wisest philosophers had not yet fully conceived. The}^ learned 
to use their language correcth^ l)y persistent practice ; they ac- 
quired delicacy of taste b}^ familiarity with good models. lyike- 
vvise the Greeks neither knew nor cared to understand any lan- 
guage but their own ; and yet, knowing only their own language, 
their poets, orators, and philosophers are still considered almost 
unapproachable models of literary excellence. 

Here let me not be misconceived by any enthusiastic gramma- 
rian or polylingtcist ; nor let a covert attack upon favorite branches, 
which is b}^ no means intended, be read into this paragraph. 
Probably few who hear me value such studies more highly than I, 
for their undeniable merits. They are, when rightly employed, a 
very effective means of intellectual discipline ; and, in the case of 
many, they become essential as sources of valuable knowledge ; but 
the assumption that theirstudy is indispensable to the formation of 
a correct and delicate taste, or to gaining the mastery of one's ver- 
nacular, is shown to be untrue, not merely b}^ prominent individual 
examples, but by the history of a nation remarkable for its literary 
excellence. Such a fact should lead us all to a truer estimate of 



See Karl Schmidt, Geschichte der Padagogik, Vol. i, p. 714, 4th ed. 



Its Value to Teachers. ii 

the value of our mother tongue, and to a more discriminate and 
effective use of its resources, not only in the attractive presenta- 
tion of its literature, but also in securing from pupils its correct 
use, and its enrichment during the entire period of their school 
life. In this respect, our German brethren, orthodox classicists 
as they are, could teach us a valuable lesson. It is poor educa- 
tional economy, to say the least, to bestow so much time on the 
study of formal grammar, which is only a means, as to leave little 
or none for those exercises that serve to rectify and enlarge the 
pupil's use of speech, which is the end ; or to neglect the literary 
treasures of our own language, that we may impart to pupils a 
knowledge, too often very imperfect, of some other language. 

The very proper and reasonable time limit fixed for such disser- 
tations as this, will preclude me from doing more than hint at 
some further suggestions which the perusal of educational history 
will be likely to convey to intelligent teachers, without going into 
even the small amount of illustration that has thus far been at- 
tempted. I will therefore mention a few points very briefly. 

7. Much emphasis is just now rightly laid in many quarters on 
the teaching of Civics in our schools. The History of Roman 
Education in the better days of the Republic, illustrates well the 
importance of such instruction ; both Plato and Aristotle strongly 
enforce it as essential to good citizenship, as do also our own Mil- 
ton and Locke, and not a few others. 

8. The advocates of Manual Training will be pleased to meet 
the views of their early friends, in the proposal of Sir Wm. Petty, 
1647, and in the works of Comenius and Locke, Rousseau and 
Pestalozzi ; and to note the well-omened and successful efforts of 
Ferdinand Kindermann, 1771, to elevate the condition of the Bo- 
hemian peasantry by introducing into the schools which he estab- 
lished, rural employments and feminine handiwork. 

9. The power, and the extent of influence of moral and reli- 
gious ideas, which will be found to give a strong coloring to all 
educational systems, and even to condition their form in many 
oriental nations, should rivet the attention of teachers on the ne- 
cessity of sparing no pains in the development of a right type of 
character, a duty of the very first importance, and yet which they 
are but too apt to neglect amid the wearing preoccupations of the 
school-room. 

10. We are repeatedly reminded how much for success or failure 
depends on the personality of the teacher, until the well worn les- 



12 The History of Educatioii. 



LIBKHKY Uh (^UMOKtoo 



019 877 032 2 



son falls on unheeding ears. With what new force then does not 
this lesson strike us, when it is embodied in the life-history of men 
like Ratich and Basedow, both gifted with unusual ability, and the 
originators of great and promising educational projects, yet both 
doomed to failure by the defects of their moral organization ; or, 
when we see Pestalozzi emerging from the ruins of all his under- 
takings, — ruins caused by his various "unrivalled incapacities" 
and limitations, — his head crowned with a garland of victory by 
virtue of " his inexhaustible love for the people, his pure heart, his 
glowing enthusiasm, and his restless efforts and sacrifices for hu- 
man welfare through human culture." 

11. A caution against supposing that all that is now worth 
knowing should be crowded into our school programs, may be con- 
veyed to us by the history of all earlier schools, in which men so 
disciplined their powers as to become wise and great, by diligent 
attention to a list of studies which we would think meagre, — pos- 
sibly finding it even an advantage that subjects were so few as to 
leave the current of their progress to an untroubled flow. 

12. And, finally, the pains-taking care that we may see exer- 
cised in more recent times, by the wisest and most experienced ed- 
ucators, in weighing, selecting, proportioning, and arranging the 
.schemes of study for great communities, should be, to those among 
us who are charged with the administration of schools, both an aid 
and an encouragement, in the discharge of their difficult and per- 
plexing duties, inspiring them to labor zealously and prudently in 
building up what will ultimately be a great American system of 
schools, — the best and most effective, let us hope, that the world 
has hitherto seen. 

Such, then, are some of the aids, the suggestions and the inspi- 
rations which the History of Education can offer to all teachers 
who will study it aright. Will they not richly repay the trouble 
of .securing ? 



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